Hey friend! Have fun exploring Q&A, but in order to ask your own
questions, comment, or give thumbs up, you need to be logged in to your
Moz Pro account.
You can also earn access by receiving 500
MozPoints
from participating in YouMoz and the Moz Blog!

Will Search Engines implement timestamps?

We continuously receive comments on our partners' websites which are obviously spam from a third world country trying to build backlinks that some SEO firm outsourced.

Out of curiosity, and what I've added to my prayers at night is for the search engines to apply an algorithm update to discredit comments posted under a certain time frame to help identify spam, and these garbage practices. Do you think something like this would happen?

My most important thought is...how can we compete with companies that are doing these practices trying to get that quick buck? Look, we want to play the game with the highest ethics and morals and not "cheat" the system because we know a "work around".

9 Responses

I am with EGOL, unfortunately there are a lot of comment spammers, and what you can do, is just to simple delete all the time the spam comments, or don't allow any comments.

Regarding competing with these guys, I would say, that until you play fair one day it will pay out. Google, Bing and other search engines too are working hard on competing with spam and "delivering best results". Until you, I or anyone else really focuses this, I wouldn't be much worried regarding these low quality companies. There will be always some who think they can earn fast money, without putting anything on the table. But these guys will raise and fall... again-again-and-again, but those who "play fair" will remain up constantly.

Well, all I can do is hope. This is why we invest a lot of energy in online marketing and not in cheating with black hats :-)

I saw a lot of SEO agencies go up with clients on the wrong way, then after few months falling back. Then we speak of a loss-loss situation:

the agency lost the client, because of their negative strategy

the client lost energy and money

I am always trying to practice what I preach, and try to deliver the clients goals in front of me. Unfortunately we are all not the same.

There are unfortunately link builders who would be very good (and it would be good to invest in them) BUT they gain contracts where some agency outsources in them with contracts like $2/100 links. I don't wonder they spam us all. And don't even blame them (because all they do is work how they were learned too). I blame those agencies, project managers who apply these standards for their freelancers.

I don't allow comments on my websites because I don't want to spend a lot of time deleting the marketing spam and deciding what to do with the political folks and crackpots who would also be posting. That decision costs me a lot of great user-generated content but I am OK with that.

My most important thought is...how can we compete with companies that are doing these practices trying to get that quick buck?

I honestly don't worry about these guys because I don't think that their methods are extremely effective. In other words, once you have done enough work to get above them they are off of your radar and don't bother you anymore. So, just keep working until you have them beat and your mind will move on to other things.

Thanks EGOL! We are already seeing the effects of our better quality work. I guess I'm just venting. Thanks for helping me regain focus on what matters. I just need to ignore those bad practices, and not let it take so much energy away. Thanks again.

With most of my sites, I have a very strong interest in the subject of the site and I put an extra amount of time into making nice content. I am sure that if I kept track of my time it would be quite expensive - but in the long-run I believe that I get my money back in better rankings.

If I was doing SEO for clients it would be hard to convince them to make the same large investment up front.

Hey friend! Have fun exploring Q&A, but in order to ask your own
questions, comment, or give thumbs up, you need to be logged in to your
Moz Pro account.
You can also earn access by receiving 500
MozPoints
from participating in YouMoz and the Moz Blog!
Learn more.